Week 36: Kindergarteners Bringing Their Ideas to Life!

Dear Family,

We hope you are all doing well! Our 36th week flew by as we stayed busy learning, creating, and figuring things out together. Curious about what we’ve been up to? Well, let us take you through each session step by step…

Large Group

Our large group time continued to support our reading and writing skills, as we made great use of our board for different learning activities. As part of our weekly routine, Mondays are for sharing about our weekends, and Wednesdays are for book sharing. On Wednesdays, our children talk about the books they returned and share their favorite parts; sometimes inspiring their friends to choose the same book next time! The rest of the week was focused on reading and writing practice. We built on last week’s focus by continuing with digraphs and diphthongs. We are proud to see that our kinders have mastered many diphthongs and are now using this knowledge to support their reading skills, especially when exploring storybooks.

“I was at home bored so I didn’t go anywhere and suddenly my uncle came and I was watching TV and it went off and I played with my sister and then my niece came and I slept and I ate cereal the next morning go swimming and I couldn’t swim so I was drinking the swim water but then I got hungry and got out of the pool” -Kian

“You know my daddy left yesterday? Yeah he went to his work in Sudan but I was crying so hard and Abigu helped me but suddenly she started copying me and started copying. My dad promised to buy me a yellow iPad with trees. You know what also my mommy wore make up like lots of makeup and I asked who she was and she said she is my mommy but I couldn’t believe it so I cried again and she took away all the makeup and I get my mommy back so she told me it was a trick” -Liyat

“My daddy sleeps everyday. He likes to rest and I sleep with him sometimes. And then I watched TV with my cousin and I played game with my friend on the TV and I eat Macaroni and I saw a turtle and a bee” -Ismael

“With Yemariam I go Friday house with Yemariam I play ball” -Betselot

“With my Betselot in Friday I go play with her and my big sister and we eat pizza” -Yemariam

“Uhm my weekend. We go in to our car and we go to a mountain and back. We go there again” -Samuel

“I was ready to go to Hilton and after that and I went to the 8th floor and I also went to H01. And I went for lunch and ice cream and walked. In dinner time a man comes and sing a song for us and we went back to the 8th floor and slept there and on Sunday morning I went back down and swam and I already know how to swim. And my mommy also promised me we will go back there on May 21 on her birthday.” -Lubono

“I was playing and my uncle came and I was about to go with him but he said no so I stayed at home and I watched phone and after that I ate chip and drink Fanta. And I also ate indomin and I also ate bread with shiro and in the night time my mom came after I fall asleep on Sunday I went to cut my hair and I went to my mommy’s shop and guys she has a lot of Oreos at her shop.” -Yadon

“On Saturday I went to Senbet School with Liyat and I went with my dad to a hair salon because I was going to take pictures with my aunty but there was no light so we didn’t go and we were going to take the pictures on Sunday but my cousin didn’t come to take me so I went to my friends birthday and I wanted to eat chocolate but Samen already finished it so I ate burger and also we wanted to swim but the rain come so we went inside and I got a Batman face paint.” -Leul

“I watched a lot of TV when I stayed home last week. I ate pizza and lots of things. This weekend I spent it the same like the week I was missing from school. Btw our stove exploded and it was so scary to watch. Anyways my weekend is just watching TV and eating. “ -Solomon

Literacy

Continuing with our special adjective lessons (a and an), we introduced a new idea this week; describing words, also known as adjectives. The name was not new to our kinders, as they were familiar with “a” and “an” being special adjectives called articles. We began by describing what we and our friends were wearing using simple describing words like colors, sizes, and features. This made the concept fun, personal, and easy to understand. We then moved to the board, where we used different object pictures with space before them. Our children came up one by one and added their own describing words to complete each phrase in their own creative way. In our second literacy session, they continued practicing through a worksheet where they identified and circled the describing words. This helped strengthen their understanding and made the concept clearer and easier to use.

Math

This week, we revisited our 3D shapes in a more interactive way. During our first session, our children were first asked to think about what each shape reminds them of. After sharing their ideas, they were then given real life objects that matched the shapes they mentioned. This made the activity more meaningful, as they were able to connect their own thoughts with actual objects; like a ball for a sphere or a block for a cube. In our second session, they took their learning even further by creating their own 3D shape models using paper, glue, and scissors. It was a fun experience, and they all did a wonderful job bringing their ideas to life!

Science

We continued our learning on vertebrates and invertebrates, and our children are becoming more confident in telling the difference! In our first session, they worked on a fun worksheet where they looked at different animal pictures, identified them, and then checked the correct category; whether the animal has a backbone (vertebrate) or does not (invertebrate). In our second session, we made it even more exciting! Our children were given another worksheet where they cut out pictures of different animals and sorted them by sticking each one into the correct category. This activity kept them fully engaged as they used both their thinking skills and fine motor skills.

Art

Building on last week’s chart paper practice, our children brought their ideas onto canvas this week, turning their plans into real artwork.

They began by drawing their own borders using markers, adding a personal touch to their canvas. Then, they carefully wrote their chosen positive words using pencils, taking their time to get the shapes just right. Once ready, they traced over their words using paint in colors of their choice. They did this with great focus and care, and the results are already looking beautiful and meaningful. Next, we will be adding some stamping designs around the words to make the artwork even more colorful and inviting. We can’t wait to see the final results come together!

Next week’s schedule:

Monday – Math, Literacy

Tuesday – Literacy, Science

Wednesday -Library, Math

Thursday - Science, Music

Friday - Library

Specials:

Monday- Art

Tuesday - Gym

Thursday - Ethiopian center/ clay

Reminders and notes:

• Please make sure that our children are wearing suitable clothes on Monday as we have art class and activities get messy sometimes.

• Every Wednesday and Friday is library day. Our children will be bringing home a book of their choice in their library folder, so please make sure to read the book with them over the weekend. Please return the folder the following Wednesday so they can get a new one.
• Every Tuesday, we have gymnastics, so please ensure that our children come dressed in comfortable and loose fitting sports attire to facilitate their exercise.

• Every Friday, we have football, so please make sure our children wear their football jerseys if they have them, or any comfortable shorts.

So much learning, creating, and growing; see you next week!